Tag Archives: Marlins

The Miami Marlins are in for the weekend, and with them comes Jose Reyes. Now that the season is dwindling down to a precious few games, I ask: Would the Mets season been significantly different had they re-signed Reyes?

I don’t see how that is possible after last night.

REYES: He wouldn't be smiling now.

With the way the Mets are heading, by the time they are competitive again Reyes will be on the downside of his career. The Mets had to have made that self-examination in their thought process. How could they not have?

On paper, the Marlins opened the season a better team than the Mets, with or without adding Reyes.

The teams have six games remaining to determine last place, which no looks like a foregone conclusion.

Reyes will finish with a superior career than Ruben Tejada, but the latter is a better fit for the Mets, and it is based on economics. The Mets couldn’t afford to give Reyes the deal the Marlins did and then expect to re-sign David Wright. Re-signing R.A. Dickey wasn’t even an issue then.

As it is, the Mets will be hard pressed to bring them back despite receiving a favorable court ruling in the Madoff scandal. The Mets won’t have to pay nearly the penalty they could have and get three years before they have to start paying anything. Outside of a clean verdict – which never would have happened – the Wilpons couldn’t have asked for a better deal.

With the Mets playing out the string, what better time to announce the 2013 schedule, which is crazier than usual.

One good thing is the Mets and Yankees only play four games, scheduled in back-to-back two game series at the end of May.

On the flip side, interleague play is spread out throughout the season. You all know what this blog thinks of interleague play, so there’s no use in going through that now. One interleague comment, however, is the absurdity of scheduling something in September. In fact, the Mets have four series in September out of their division. They also have four series against teams that will only make one trip to Citi Field, which opens up the possibility to long rain delays and awkward make-up dates later in the season.

After last night’s disaster, the Mets talked about showing up again tomorrow. Well, tomorrow got here a lot faster than normal. There’s no time to stew on 13-0 as the Mets and Marlins are back at it today at noon.

Here’s the lineup:

Ruben Tejada – SS

Mike Baxter – RF

Daniel Murphy – 2B

David Wright – 3B

Ike Davis – 1B

Jordany Valdespin – LF

Andres Torres – CF

Josh Thole – C

R.A. Dickey – RHP

LINEUP COMMENTS: Interesting to see Ruben Tejada and Mike Baxter 1-2 in the order. … Good to see Baxter and Jordany Valespin getting time. … I think we’ve seen the last days of Andres Torres as a leadoff hitter.

With the signing of Jose Reyes, the Miami Marlins were the sexy pick to win the NL East, but their meltdown turned into a fire sale with arguably the best player in franchise history, Hanley Ramirez, being shipped to the Dodgers.

Clearly, Ramirez and Reyes didn’t co-exist the way the Marlins hoped. The Marlins obviously didn’t run the signing through Ramirez the way they should have in order to avoid conflict and soothe the temperamental Ramirez.

Interesting, but the Marlins were listening to offers for Reyes at the trade deadline. Nothing substantial, but they made it known they’d listen. Seems the Mets made the right decision in not to cave and give Reyes over $100 million.

The Mets were gambling on Ruben Tejada when they let Reyes walked and he’s produced at both ends.

While the Mets appeared to right themselves on their last road trip, that hasn’t been the case for David Wright, who hit .184 on the trip and has seen his strikeouts spike as it has the past couple of seasons.

Perhaps Wright was trying to carry a floundering team, but he needs to use the whole field and improve his patience.

An interesting note about tonight is Jason Bay in the order. It makes you wonder if he’ll be reduced to playing against left-handers in a platoon role. The last trip was supposed to be a key stretch for Bay, but he produced just two hits. GM Sandy Alderson said the Mets won’t eat Bay’s contract, but if his time is severely cut, why not?

To me, tonight is about Jonathan Niese, who lately has been pitching late into the game – usually clearing six innings – and whether he’ll close the season on a hot streak. Niese has closed previous seasons injured and the Mets want to see him end this one on a positive note.

Whether that means shutting him down once the Mets officially raise the white flag remains to be seen.

I don’t know about you, but I had to laugh when I heard about the Hanley Ramirez trade, and also news the Marlins might be shopping Jose Reyes.

Evidently, the Marlins put a lot of thought into the Reyes signing. Or, at least a minimum of good thought.

I look at the prospects the Dodgers gave up for Ramirez and Randy Choate and wonder where the Mets were at the time. Surely, they had prospects equal to that of the Dodgers, but the Marlins didn’t want to trade within the division.

It’s simple actually, but it does tell you how screwed up the Marlins are as a franchise. Word is they are taking offers for Josh Johnson, and the Red Sox are at the front of the line.

There’s a week remaining before the trade deadline and already some primetime names have moved. Wonder who’ll be the first to raid Flushing?